Correction: Trends in Outpatient Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Implications for Primary Care, 2000 to 2019
Authors: Michael L. Barnett, MD, MS, Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH, Jeff Souza, MA, Bruce E. Landon, MD, MBA, MSc
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2022)

CorrectionsOctober 2022Correction: Trends in Outpatient Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Implications for Primary Care, 2000 to 2019FREEThis correction concerns the following article:Original ResearchDec 2021Trends in Outpatient Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Implications for Primary Care, 2000 to 2019Michael L. Barnett, MD, MS, Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH, Jeff Souza, MA, and Bruce E. Landon, MD, MBA, MScMichael L. Barnett, MD, MSHarvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts (M.L.B.), Asaf Bitton, MD, MPHHarvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts (A.B.), Jeff Souza, MAHarvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (J.S.), and Bruce E. Landon, MD, MBA, MScHarvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts (B.E.L.).Author, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/L22-0334 SectionsAboutVisual AbstractPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail Barnett and colleagues (1) report a set of corrections to their article. An oversight in the code meant that their original analysis mistakenly captured beneficiaries with continuous enrollment in Medicare Part A or Part B, not Part A and Part B as intended and as documented in the Methods section. Although the overall changes to the results are minimal, the error affected most of the results in the article. The changes came to light when colleagues in their department were replicating the results for an unrelated project using Medicare data. They were unable to get matching results, and questioning why this was the case led to the discovery of this error.The authors reran the analyses in the article using the updated cohort definition with the exception of the analysis for Figure 3, which was not affected by this error. Correcting the error removed approximately 10% of the published sample—a group with fewer claims than the intended cohort, because many of them did not have continuous Part B enrollment. Otherwise, the analyses were identical to what the authors originally specified in the Methods section. The authors have updated the abstract, Results and Discussion sections, graphics, and Appendix to reflect these changes. The main conclusions and interpretation of the results are unchanged. The authors are confident in the current set of results because their colleagues have now replicated them with an independent programmer in a separate 100% sample of Medicare claims.It is important to update these results for reproducibility in the future by other researchers and analysts. This is another example of the value of reproducing others' research, which is how the error came to light. The authors apologize for this oversight and appreciate the opportunity to correct the article.Reference1. Barnett ML, Bitton A, Souza J, et al. Trends in outpatient care for Medicare beneficiaries and implications for primary care, 2000 to 2019. Ann Intern Med. 2021;174:1658-65. [PMID: 34724406] doi:10.7326/M21-1523 LinkGoogle Scholar Comments0 CommentsSign In to Submit A Comment Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: This article was published at Annals.org on 30 August 2022. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsSee AlsoTrends in Outpatient Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Implications for Primary Care, 2000 to 2019 Michael L. Barnett , Asaf Bitton , Jeff Souza , and Bruce E. Landon Metrics October 2022Volume 175, Issue 10Page: 1492KeywordsHealth careMedicareOutpatientsPrevention, policy, and public healthPrimary carePrimary care physicians ePublished: 30 August 2022 Issue Published: October 2022 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2022 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...